School faces major building repair

FOUNTAIN HILLS - McDowell Mountain Elementary School will need major roof work to repair trusses but classes will continue as usual for the school's 504 students.

Tim Leedy, assistant superintendent for business and support services, discovered indentions on Oct. 22 after inspecting the school's roof, which was recently reshingled. Workers then cut holes in the roof and noticed the trusses had pulled out of the gussets and were causing the roof to sag.

Leedy told the Fountain Hills Unified School District governing board last week that roughly 30 trusses needed to be repaired.

"There's probably more than that now," Leedy said Monday. "That was just an estimate of the ones that had separated."

Meanwhile, classes are continuing without interruption. Construction crews shored up the trusses on Oct. 23 with scaffolding and the building is undergoing a structural engineering assessment.

"If I thought for one minute that there was any jeopardy for a child, there's no way I'd open the doors," said McDowell Mountain Principal Joanne Meehan.

John Denny, a structural engineer of Phoenix's Gervasio and Associates hired to assess the roof, will send a letter to town officials declaring the building safe.

"We just want to make sure that there's a letter from the engineer stating that it's all right for students to be in there," said Katie Decker, spokeswoman for Fountain Hills.

Denny spoke to Randy Roberts, town fire marshal, and Peter Johnson, Fountain Hills' chief building official.

"(Construction crews) put shoring in to make it safe and that's going to be adequate until the final repairs can be made," said Johnson, who visited the school Monday.

Meehan said the school has been forthcoming with parents. The school sent home a letter on Oct. 27, the first day back from the district's fall break.

"I only had one parent call, and he was given all the information and his background was engineering," Meehan said. "He seemed satisfied."

Meehan, 12-year McDowell principal, plans to send another letter home once Denny submits a report. Leedy could not estimate a repair schedule or costs until he received Denny's assessment, expected later this week.

"As far as a fix, I don't have a clue. It's going to be pricey, I know that," Leedy said. "They're going to have to jack up the trusses, and they're going to have to individually glue and nail the trusses."

Leedy sent a letter to the Arizona School Facilities Board requesting emergency assistance for repairs. Money to pay for a structural engineering assessment and for scaffolding has come out of the district's contingency money from a $12 million facilities bond passed in 2007. The district has spent roughly $50,000 just on shoring up the building temporarily, Leedy said.

McDowell, built in 1986, underwent roughly $750,000 in maintenance over the summer, including new air conditioning units, a new drop ceiling, and a new fire alarm system, Leedy said.

District officials now believe the school roof had faulty trusses for years. The school, which serves preschool through second grade, had problems with sheet rock falling onto drop ceilings only a few years after completion and misattributed the cause of the problem. Faulty trusses, Leedy said, likely caused the issue.

The district cannot pursue legal action against the school's general contractor - Command Development - because it went bankrupt during school construction. Two other general contractors finished the school.

Once the district has Denny's assessment, it will hire a contractor to make repairs during non-school hours, Meehan said.